Page 6 - eft-ebook

The Roots of Tapping

As mentioned earlier, Tapping has its roots in Traditional Chinese Medicine
(TCM), a realm of healing that for centuries has aimed to treat the cause of
illnesses and disorders rather than merely responding to their symptoms, like
so many approaches to healing today.

The true magic of this technique doesn’t lie solely in history, however; it
resides at the point where these ancient principles intersect with modern
insights about how our body and psyche work in unison.

In the 1970s, these two streams of thought came together in the office of a
psychologist named Dr. Roger Callahan. Although he observed traditional
protocol in his work, he found himself deeply intrigued by Traditional
Chinese Medicine, specifically the principles of the body’s meridian lines.

In TCM, these meridian lines run throughout the body and are pathways for the
flow of “ch’i” or life force. When the flow of ch’i becomes impaired due to trauma
of some kind, the blockage can give rise to a whole host of injuries or illnesses.
By manipulating various points along these lines – as acupuncturists do with
needles – the flow of ch’i can be restored and the problems eliminated.

Callahan was fascinated by these principles but saw no need to incorporate them
into his practice. That is, until he met Mary.

Mary would prove to be one of Callahan’s more confounding patients. She
suffered from a severe water phobia, and nothing that Callahan tried seemed to
help. Her fear was so intense that she even had trouble bathing her children.
Callahan was stumped.

One day, Mary mentioned that when she thought about water, she felt a
throbbing discomfort in her stomach. When she revealed this, Callahan had a
flash of insight. He recalled that TCM held that one of the meridian points that
corresponded with the stomach could be found right beneath the eye. On a
hunch, he asked Mary to tap on this spot when the stomach pain arose.

Mary did as he suggested. Her discomfort was quickly replaced by utter
astonishment; the pain was gone. Better yet, she was no longer afraid of water!

Thrilled by this discovery, Callahan experimented with various meridian points
and eventually distilled his findings into what he called Thought Field Therapy. A
wild success, TFT attracted many students in the 1980s, one of whom was Gary
Craig.

Alina Frank and Dr. Craig Weiner, DC
The Art and Science of EFT
www.efttappingtraining.com